Evidence Told In Teacher Killing

Prosecution Discloses Roommate's Links To Slaying

A strand of hair snared in the clasp of Donald Kalwa's watch and left with Rachel Rachlin's body in her car gave authorities clues as to who might have killed her, prosecutors said Thursday.

Kalwa, a 29-year-old computer programmer who briefly had shared a Westmont apartment with Rachlin, appeared before Cook County Circuit Judge Robert Bastone. He has been charged with first-degree murder and was ordered held on $200,000 bond.

"We have a wealth of circumstantial evidence that all points directly and inexplicably to the defendant," said Assistant State's Atty. Garry Howard at Kalwa's bond hearing.

Although the gun used in the killing has not been found, prosecutors seemed confident that clues in the puzzling case have led them to the killer.

Kalwa's defense attorney J. Scott Arthur said his client had nothing to do with Rachlin's murder.

"Checks were drawn on the victim's account after she was dead," said Cook County State's Atty. Jack O'Malley who attended the bond hearing. "His signature has been authenticated on the back of the checks."

Howard said that Rachlin, 29, a bilingual teacher who had just begun a new job at the Schaefer School in Lombard, had responded to a newspaper ad for a roommate in July and moved into Kalwa's Westmont apartment at 32 W. 60th St.

Rachlin last was heard from at 9 p.m. Aug. 19 when she left a message on a friend's answering machine, Howard said.

On Aug. 24, Rachlin's mother reported her missing to Westmont police, Howard said. On Sept. 1, Rachlin's body was found buried under hundreds of pounds of topsoil in the trunk of her 1993 Nissan Sentra in a remote parking lot at O'Hare International Airport.

Under questioning by police on Aug. 26, while Rachlin was missing, Kalwa told police he last had seen his roommate on Aug. 18 when he went to visit his girlfriend, Howard said. He said her things had been missing from the apartment on Aug. 22 when he returned, Howard said.

"He said he assumed she had moved out because she had been talking about it," Howard said.

After her body was found, investigators canvassed the area where she lived and found a maintenance man who said he had seen Kalwa moving things out of the apartment and putting them in a trash bin on Aug. 20, Howard said. The maintenance man collected the discarded things out of the trash, including a television, some of Rachlin's jewelry and other personal belongings, Howard said.

Then, a Westmont firefighter who moonlights as a limousine driver told police he had picked Kalwa up from the United Airlines terminal at O'Hare International Airport on Aug. 20, Howard said.

The driver said his passenger who identified himself as "Donald" said he had just gotten off a flight, but he had no luggage, and the driver said the passenger commented on the people mover, Howard said.

"He said he liked the people mover but there was no place to sit down," Howard said. "The people mover connects the (United Airlines) terminal with the remote parking area."

The driver, who like the maintenance man identified Kalwa in a police lineup, dropped Kalwa off at an address that Howard said was one block from the Westmont apartment and watched as Kalwa approached the address on foot and then turned around and walked elsewhere, Howard said.

Kalwa told police he had not been to O'Hare in at least one year, Howard said.

When police searched Rachlin's car, they found a Brittania watch on the floor of the car that had a long strand of hair knotted around the clasp. The hair was tested and found to be consistent with the length, texture and color of Rachlin's hair and the watch was identified by Kalwa's girlfriend as one she had given him as a Christmas gift the year before, Howard said.

Authorities also found five checks drawn on Rachlin's account with signatures that were forged, Howard said. One check for $600 was made out to Kalwa and endorsed by him; another for $300 was endorsed by him for cash and several of the forged checks, prosecutors said, were used to pay Kalwa's utility bills.

When police asked Kalwa "why a person would fill the trunk of a car with dirt," Howard said Kalwa told them, "To conceal the odor so that the body would not be discovered."

Howard said the car trunk where Rachlin's body had been left had been filled with topsoil, which had served that purpose.

Howard said Rachlin's killer had shot her three times in the head and then placed a plastic bag around her head and knotted it at the neck. The killer then had wrapped Rachlin's body in a sheet, Howard said.